, 1887-10-29
A Slim Show for Anarchists.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29.-Before the
supreme court to-day julius S. Grinnell,
the states attorney of Illinois at the time
of the anarchist trial, made a brief but
effectual argument against granting a writ
of error. Referring to the Jury, he said
that SO far as the composition OF the jury
was concerned there was only one man in
it to whom any objection was raised by
the defense, and that was Sanford, who
was the last juror selected. Au attempt
had been made, he said, to show that an
other Juror named Denker had also been
objected to, but at the time Juror Denker
was accepted the defense had the right to
make l42 peremptUry challenges. Grin
nell said that every man on the jury was
duly qualified under the common law.
1t was, he said with some feeling, a rep
resentative American Jury, as good and
intelligent a jury as was ever looked upon.
1t was in no sense a class jury Three of
the jurymen were men who labored with
their hands, one of them was a man of
foreign birth, and there was not a CAPT
talist among them.
With regard to unreasonable search
and seizure" Grinnell said he did not
desire, and this was not the place, to
apologize for anything that he had done
in this case. He believed, however, that
it had always been regarded as proper to
deprive a criminal of the of
| his crime and to use those instruments as
evidence against him.
After speaking about forty minutes
G|rinnell closed.
Butler rose and objected to the latter
part of Grinnells argument, on the ground
It went outside of the printed record and
brought in extraneous matter to which no
reference had before been made. That
this extIaneous matter must be popular
with the. court or its introduction would
not be permitted. He aud his associates
had been taken by surprise and the lives
of their clients put in jeopardy. After
describing what happened previous to the
hay market meeting, he said: AC that
meeting a bomb was thrown by somebody
for some purpose, and there is not one
word in those 5000 pages OF evidence to
show that anyone of these men had any.
thing to do with the throwing Of that bomb.
Its explosion killed a single policeman,
and within a few days all these men were
arrested without warrants, committed to
Jail and held there without examination
and without process until they were in
dicted by a grand jury He said he was
ready to pledge himself that there was
not a single man of the jury selected who
had not said that he had a firm. and some
Of them an enthusiastic conviction against
the defendants.
Returning to the unreasonable
searches and seizures" Gen. Butler ex
claimed: why your honors, they
searched under a burglary headed by the
states attorney on his own admission
No miserable policeman or ~haltwittcd
constable, but the states prosecuting at
torney does the burglary; steals the papers
and says you cant help that. He puts it
with a sort Of triumph, and we are told
our immunities and privileges are not IN
vaded. and our remedy is to sue for tres
pass. What a beautiful remedy. Sue
the states attorney and be tried by such
a Jury as the law of Illinois would give
Better be in a place not to be named for
comfort"
Gen. Butler again urged that the pri,-
oners had been sentenced 10 death In their
absence, and in conclusion said: If men =
lives can be taken in this way, as you have
seen exhibited here to dav, better anar-
chy; better be without law than with any
snch law.
Gen. Butler then thanked the court for
its indulgence and took his seat.
The chief justice called the next case on
the docket and the hearing of the motion
Of the anarchists for a writ of error was
over.
1t seems to be the general impression
among those who have paid the closest
attention to the proceedings that counsel
for the state had altogether the best Of the
argument aud that a writ Of error will not
be granted.